Avotu Street is an area of Riga, Latvia, where old wooden houses stand alongside concrete apartment blocks. The neighbourhood carries a particular sense of earlier times, mixed with a slightly rough, worn-in atmosphere. In recent years, it has become increasingly popular among young adults, drawn by small shops, bars and cafés. Although close to the city centre, Avotu Street feels noticeably more intimate and contained than Riga’s main central streets.
Nearby are the central railway station and the large shopping centre Origo. The mall has become one of the most common gathering places for teenagers. Social workers often refer to them as “Origo kids”, noting that many young people from socially challenging backgrounds spend their free time there. Most of the time they simply hang out, but at times some become involved in illegal activities, which brings them into contact with social services.
Darina, a 17-year-old girl who previously spent time with these groups, reflects on her experience:
“No matter how good it may feel to be part of such groups, in reality it is very destructive. Sometimes it feels like things are getting worse every year – young people grow up faster than they should. They start using substances earlier, start smoking earlier, and end up in these environments earlier. I simply don’t want my children to seek belonging in the same way,” explains Darina.
(LSM, 19 December 2023)
Today, Darina volunteers with the NGO Resilience Center, which reaches out to teenagers spending time at Origo, offering support and alternatives for imagining a different life path.
The Resilience Center works specifically with young people at risk, offering a range of programmes and activities. Alongside this, it runs a space open to all generations – the Community Center Resilience Avoti, located on Avotu Street. Everyone is welcome there, regardless of age or background, and participation does not require enrolment in any formal programme. People can come to cook and eat together, play board games, initiate their own ideas or exhibit artworks. Activities such as photography, dance, brain games and psychological support are also available, though always on a voluntary basis. In many ways, Resilience Avoti functions as a preventive space – a place to meet young people before their situation becomes critical and more intensive intervention is required.
Given the New Theatre Institute of Latvia’s long-standing experience of working with teenagers, it felt natural to initiate a long-term collaboration with Community Center Resiliences Avots. Building trust, forming meaningful connections and sustaining genuine interest requires time and presence. During the summer of 2025, the team contacted the centre, organised several meetings and joined communal cooking evenings to get to know both the space and the teenagers who gather there. It quickly became clear that the centre functions as a second home for many – a place where they can express themselves or simply be. As newcomers, it was equally clear that becoming part of this community would require patience and care.
The first artist-in-residence was choreographer Laura Gorodko. Through contemporary dance, she introduced the teenagers to conversations around art, contemporary artistic practice, mistakes, emotions, movement, contact and trust – themes that emerged organically from the work itself. The group of participants shifted throughout the residency, and with it the interests and topics evolved. One of the main challenges was continuity: maintaining a regular schedule, forming a stable group and building shared focus. While some participants joined intermittently, a core group gradually formed. In total, around nineteen teenagers took part in workshops and discussions, with a core group of five girls remaining closely engaged throughout the process – Zane Gedjuna, Gerda Kovaļevska, Evelīna Zirjanova, Daniela Bērziņa and Kristīne Kalniete-Raukte.
The long-term aim of the collaboration is to introduce contemporary performing arts to teenagers and, over time, to create a collectively devised performance through which they can express themselves and tell their own stories. The first year focused on relationship-building and on introducing performative practices. Together with the young participants and community members, Gorodko initiated movement-based events, interactive exhibitions, informal performances and dance gatherings that blurred the boundaries between learning, socialising and creating.
During the New Theatre Institute of Latvia’s international festival of contemporary theatre Homo Novus, Laura and the teenagers presented a performative installation titled SKETCH. One room of the community centre was transformed, with walls covered in paper filled with writings, tasks, quotes and photographs documenting their time together. Each teenager prepared their own “weird snack” recipe, treating food itself as a creative gesture. The presentation also included a short dance piece. The event reflected the familiar warmth of the centre, combined with a sense of excitement and celebration.
As the residency drew to a close, Laura invited the teenagers to imagine a final project together. She proposed creating a short creative documentary film centred on their experiences and individual dance solos. The group agreed enthusiastically and also produced three hand-drawn posters for the film’s premiere. Videographer Aivars Šeicans joined the process to document both the journey and its outcomes. The result was a 23-minute film combining footage from workshops, discussions and rehearsals, a performance during the community centre’s birthday celebration, and five solo dances filmed in different locations across Riga – including Riga Circus, a forest, St Peter’s Church, the Latvian National Library and AB Dam.
On 4 December 2025, the creative documentary short film CONTACT. Children of the Universe premiered at K.Suns cinema, welcoming family members, friends, community centre visitors and a wider audience.
The film captures the bond that developed between the teenagers and the artist, their growing curiosity towards dance, and a shared sense of authorship. It reflects on what “contact” means in their lives and which forms of connection matter most to them. At its core is the idea of contact as physical encounter, emotional openness and mutual trust – something cultivated through listening, empathy and care. The film suggests that neither dance nor community can exist without this reciprocal connection.
The screening was followed by a public conversation with the participants, reflecting on both process and outcome. What began as observation and gentle introduction gradually unfolded into a space of trust, experimentation and self-expression. The residency was not driven by a predefined result, but by the slow work of building relationships through time, attention and movement.
Dance functioned not as a technique to be mastered, but as a language – one that allowed participants to listen to their bodies, to one another and to the community around them. Through repetition, play and dialogue, contemporary dance became a tool for exploring identity, vulnerability and belonging. The solo dances did not aim for virtuosity or spectacle; instead, they embodied honesty, courage and presence. Each movement carried traces of the process – hesitation, joy, resistance and discovery.
CONTACT. Children of the Universe stands as both a document of an artistic residency and a testament to what can emerge when time, care and shared movement create space for young voices to take shape through dance.
Curatorial text by Linda Krūmiņa